Stevia Sweetner Or Truvia Sweetner

I'd suggest that you buy a small size first and try it out. If you buy a giant one and don't like the taste, you'll have wasted your money. I bought a blend of regular sugar with stevia and it tasted repulsive, I won't do that again!

I don't like the taste of any artificial sweeteners though, so now I just use sugar when I need to, but try to reduce the amount or leave it out altogether.

I grow Stevia in my herb-garden, doesn't get a lot more natural than that..

If you can get Stevia itself try it, Truvia and the "spoon for spoon" replacements for sugar have a lot of filler that isn't Stevia to make them "equivalent"..

I only use Stevia and Truvia in hot tea and baking. I've never noticed a taste difference between them and real sugar. And while I prefer Stevia, I've never noticed a difference between Stevia and Truvia.

Stevia is an herb - is all natural and is not an artificial sweetener.

Truvia is a brand name for a sweetener that uses stevia as its sweetener.

I agree with pinthin87 that you should check the labels. I've grown stevia, and I've used it in a liquid form. That was years before Truvia came on the market. Truvia came on the market AFTER stevia became FDA approved. Truvia is made from stevia and fillers. Read your labels to see exactly what you are getting.

Truvia and other similar store stevia sweetners have sugar alcohols in them which mess with your digestive tract. It can give you gas, bloating and diarreha. They are NOT true stevia. If you want true Stevia you can purchase it from a health food store. I love my Stevia from NOW foods, they also have flavored ones. I use on one tsp in a whole gallon of ice tea. I have a lemon flavored one I put in water, and it tastes like a Lemon Shake up. My kids and I love it. It did take a bit to get use to the aftertaste, but after a week, I couldn't use regular sugar in my tea anymore. I even carry a little bottle in my purse to use at resturants. This year I bought my own stevia plants and am going to dry them this winter to use.

I grow Stevia in my herb-garden, doesn't get a lot more natural than that..

If you can get Stevia itself try it, Truvia and the "spoon for spoon" replacements for sugar have a lot of filler that isn't Stevia to make them "equivalent"..

How do you dry your stevia. I have just started growing the plants this year. Have you used the ground leaves or do you make a syrup?

There are brands of Stevia that are bitter and horrible-tasting, but don't let that "sour" you to trying other brands.

Both "Stevia In The Raw" and "PureVia" I found slightly bitter. "Stevita" and "Sweet Leaf" I found extremely bitter. I find the powders and drops to be much more bitter compared to the spoon-for-spoon granules (in packets and canisters), which are usually mixed with fillers.

My fave is "Nu-Stevia"; it's in purple-and-white packets in the Organics aisle at some groceries. They add a maltodextrin filler to make the texture more like sugar. It's got a hint of licorice aftertaste and isn't bitter.

My second favorite is "Truvia" because it tastes very good with no discernable aftertaste and no bitterness, but is produced by Cargill, a huge food conglomerate I have issues with. It is mixed with Erythritol ((2R,3S)-butane-1,2,3,4-tetraol), which occurs naturally in some foods but is a food alcohol which some are sensitive to (gas, bloating).

I think it was FDA approved as a supplement, not a food additive for many years, and I think the FDA was dragging its feet so the artificial sweetener companies could devise their own formulations "containing stevia"... which means all sorts of mysterious things (opinion only).

Good luck!

I like natural stevia (I have a tea blend that mixes stevia leaves in the loose tea that is FABULOUS) over the granulated stuff. When I'm baking, I tend to just use sugar (the chemistry just isn't there, when I've tried it).

Truvia is a lot sweeter than sugar per teaspoon etc, so it doesn't really taste "the same" and the erythritol has a cooling effect.

Powdered forms of Stevia always tasted bitter to me, I almost gave up until I tried the NuNaturals brand. They have a liquid form, I buy the vanilla flavor and it's been life changing. I only use it to mix in with yogurt or smoothies sometimes but I'd definitely give it a try! You can find a good deal on iHerb.com.

I have found that different brands of stevia have a slightly different taste or aftertaste, so its worth experimenting if you don't like it the first time. I prefer the liquid stevia drops from a health food store for my tea, but if I use that in my plain greek yogurt it tastes bitter--I use powdered stevia for that and it tastes much better that way. My health food store also carries flavored stevia which I've been wanting to try in my teas--lemon, vanilla, chocolate, several different kinds.

I love the taste of truvia, I am not entirely sold on it being "healthy" but I can't bring myself to stop using it! To me stevia has a strange aftertaste.